The
stone that shapes the contours of the Isle of Purbeck and
is today quarried for its properties as a
building/ornamental material, has deep rooted origins.
Apart from the fact that it is part of the geology of the
Purbeck hills and was therefore formed in a distant and
evolutionary era, the stone has been a part of peoples
lives, or should I say livelihoods, for many years. Today
its presence in the walls of Dorset homes is welcome,
maintaining the character and tradition of the area. Yet
it's roots go further than this, not only for a local
person charting the beginnings of the Purbeck stone trade
and uses of the fruit of its extraction, but also for
those who are interested in the heritage of their country
and the fact that men quarry today on the Isle of Purbeck
what they quarried in ancient times.

A geographical definition of the area may be useful to
those not familiar with the Isle. In general terms it
constitutes the "extreme south-east corner of
Dorset", covers an area of approximately fifty
square miles and is surrounded by water on three sides,
as well as on part of the fourth, hence the title of
'Isle'. (M. Hutchings, 1967). More specifically the
Purbeck Stone Quarries under focus have been described as
being situated on "slopes" between Durlston and
Worth Matravers. (L. Tatchell, 1954). Thus encompassing
Swanage, Langton Matravers, Acton and all the cliff
quarries in between. Indeed, Acton arose as a settlement
of quarrymen, fuelled and developed as part of the
industry. See www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/gif/climbma.gif
for coastal map of Purbeck.

Briefly, attention must turn towards some definitions
concerning the stone under discussion. Purbeck 'Marble'
is not marble as such, rather "a polishable fossily
limestone". (R. Legg, 1989) It is a "freshwater
deposit" consisting of the fossilised shells of tiny
water snails (viviparus) and appears as marble,
yet technically is not. This was limestone in its early
stages. Following this marble-like state, "Time and
pressure changed the sediments of Purbeck in to a smooth
and compact crystalline limestone." This so-called
marble constitutes only a "wafer-thin outcrop"
or "vein", which runs "continuously along
the middle of the northern slope of the limestone hills,
from sea to sea, between Peveril Point in the east-where
the exposed bed runs out in to the waves," and
Worbarrow Tout in the west. (D. Pushman, 1997).

More generally, the sedimentary Purbeck rocks are
described as having been"deposited in marine and
freshwater conditions from about 155 to 45 million years
ago." (D. Kemp, 1996). These rocks belong to two
main geological systemsor periods; the
Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. The layers of stone in this
Eastern corner of Dorset began forming in the Upper
Jurassic period with the Kimmeridge Clay that lies at the
bottom. The Portland Sands are found above this followed
by the Portland Beds, the uppermost Freestone Series of
which is known as the Purbeck-Portland. On top of this
are the Lower Purbeck Beds formed approximately 155
million years ago (mya) in this Upper Jurassic era,
deposited in "shallow seas, brackish lagoons and
freshwater" and containing "mollusc, fish and
reptile remains as well as fossilised dinosaur
footprints." (D. Kemp, 1996). Throughout the ages
such fossils and footprints have been discovered by
quarrymen hard at work splitting open the layers of
stone. Most footprints are found in the Roach stratum and
such discoveries have become a charming characteristic of
Purbeck, a reminder of its fascinating origins and
development in an age one can but imagine. The Middle
Purbeck strata begins in the Upper Jurassic Period, but
from the Cinder Bed upwards is thought to have entered
the Lower Cretaceous Period, which began approximately
136 mya, although the boundary for this evolution has
been the subject of much debate. The Cinder Bed, a
quarrymans term, constitutes a very dense layer of
oysters at the bottom of the Middle Purbeck. Within this
Middle Bed are found the Lower and Upper Building Stones,
directly below and above the Cinder Bed respectively.
Just beyond the Middle is of course the Upper Purbeck
which contains the Purbeck 'Marble' discussed previously
along with broken shell Limestone. (W. J. Arkell, 1947).
See www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/swanmpg.jpg
and www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/jpg/1pumap.jpg
(browser note: using right mouse button allows you to
open maps in new window) for geological maps of Purbeck.

So, as well as their geological titles the Purbeck
Beds have been attributed names by the quarrymen who have
worked them throughout the ages. The description of the
beds around Acton Common provide a good example of this,
and many of the names featured here are repeated in most
quarries in the area. At the top is the Rag Stone
described by Pushman as crumbly and very
good. Next is the Grub a fine bed able to
produce high quality paving stone and fit for varying
degrees of polish. Below this is the Roach Bed,
mentioned previously, followed by Thornback, a
large bed producing blue hued stone. Lower
down is the Whetsun Bed before at the very bottom
the Freestone. (Pushman, 1997). This is merely an
example and other colloquial names exist to describe the
numerous veins and layers throughout the Purbeck Beds.

Ancient Connections

The Roman culture is reported to have been extremely
resourceful. When building their great cities, so
significant as symbols of wealth and power, the resources
of the countryside were utilised by the Romans as far as
possible and a reciprocal relationship between these two
geographical entities becomes evident. Therefore the use
of a natural material such as Purbeck Marble/Stone during
the Roman occupation of Britain, mainly for ornamental
but also for building purposes, is hardly surprising.

J. B. Calkin points to the 1956 Ordnance Survey Map of
Roman Britain that included regional maps, one of which
gave coverage to the Dorset and Wiltshire area. He
reported that on the Isle of Purbeck marble and shale
quarries were shown as well as four sites with pottery
kilns. (J. Bernard Calkin, 1968). He goes on to highlight
that reciprocal relationship previously mentioned with
the landscape offering a valued material and the Romans
bringing with them new skills and equipment to aid those
already engaged in quarrying. The suggestion is not that
the Romans established an industry in Purbeck marble, as
it is evident that the beginnings of one already existed,
rather that they made the most of the stone as a natural
resource and brought an element of efficiency in to the
trade.

Discoveries of Roman remains have been made adding
weight to the belief that Purbeck Marble was indeed used
as far back as the 1st Century AD. The shallow quarries
at Wilkswood, behind what is now The Old Malthouse
School, are said to have been among the "most
ancient workings in Dorset." (Legg, 1989). An
extract from the Old Malthouse School Chronicle dated
1942, describes the day that sheep and ox bones, remains
of hearths, burnt stones and ash, pieces of Roman
pottery, and stone slabs, thought to have once been part
of the walls of a stone building, were discovered when
one of the quarries was searched in 1941. A broken slab
of Purbeck Marble, polished on one face and obviously
sawn on another, was found here at the "Roman
level". (Old Malthouse School Chronicle, 1942, as
quoted in Calkin, 1968).

On this site it is believed that the Romans worked
marble, preferring the "greyish-white variety".
Legg is unique in discussing the time scale of a marble
trade in Roman Britain and identifies two periods of
quarrying; from AD 43 to 200, a time of extensive
building, and AD 350 to 400 during the countrys
economic revival. (Legg, 1989). Other possible sites for
Roman workings exist in and around Langton Westwood, but
unfortunately today the observer can only speculate when
faced with a shallow bowl-like shape in the landscape.

[Figure 1]

One of many possible locations of shallow
Roman earthworks found in and around Langton
Westwood.

Its uses, once quarried, for this industrious
Romano-British race were varied. In an earlier
writing Legg explains the essential technological
advancement of the "rotary quern" made
in Roman Britain. Otherwise known as "quern
stones" or "mill-stones" many were
made out of Purbeck stone. Their importance lay
in the fact that they "enabled the efficient
grinding of corn". (Legg, 1986). This was a
vital innovation expanding the food supply and in
turn the population of the country, in which
Purbeck stone played its part.

A common use found at this time for Purbeck was
in the production of stone coffins and monumental
inscriptions, a trend that has continued to the present
day. Their coffins were known as 'sarcophagi' an example
of which exists in the tower of St. Mary's Church,
Wareham. This is traditionally known as the first resting
place of St. Edward the Martyr, the Saxon King allegedly
murdered by his stepmother Elfrida at her Saxon home on
the site of Corfe Castle in 978. This coffin was carved
out of a solid block of Purbeck Marble. In fact more than
twelve British graves were discovered in Purbeck, from
the time of Roman occupation, in the twentieth century.
In most cases the remains had been placed in a
"box-shaped structure consisting of upright
flag-stones at the sides and ends with cover stones on
top." (Calkin, 1968).One of the more
"sophisticated" graves was discovered in
Atlantic Road, Swanage. This had two walls of stone built
up in seven courses and measuring six feet long. The
style of the grave and the fact that a bronze brooch was
found amongst the remains within it suggested that
"this was the grave of some person of substance,
perhaps the head of one of the earliest firms of the
stonemasons". (Swanage Times, 1953, as quoted in
Calkin, 1968). This gives an idea of the status attached
to people involved with the industry at this juncture in
history. It was also sawn in to slabs after which
monumental inscriptions would be carved in to the stone
tablets.

It was a luxury product. It provided ornamentation on
buildings in the form of cornices and other styles of
moulding, made mosaic floors like the one to be found in
the Church at Silchester, "the only Christian Church
so far known which dates from the Roman occupation of
Britain." (Calkin, 1968). Even pestles and mortars
made of this material have been dated back to the Roman
occupation along with other tools and instruments
including anchors with which their boats were moored.
Another practical use was as a building material. The
more hardy beds of Purbeck Stone were mainly used for
this. They buried their dead in it, they adorned their
buildings with it and they made technological innovations
using it. Purbeck Stone and Marble can be said to have
been of considerable importance to the Romano-British
race.

A Roman Legacy

These uses extended in to the Middle Ages and
Mediaeval period. The stone tombs that can be seen in
cathedrals today were a creation of this era, and
tombstones as a mark of respect and remembrance for the
dead, carved with individual designs, were placed on
graves from around the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Examples of these can be seen in the Church of Edward
King and Martyr at Corfe Castle and the Church of St.
Nicholas at Worth Matravers.

[Fig: 2]

[Fig: 3]

[Fig: 4]

Figure 2: Purbeck Marble Tombstone of the type
that originated in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
Church of Edward King and Martyr, Corfe Castle.
Photographed with permission of Reverend M. Strike.

Figure 3: Thirteenth century Purbeck Stone coffin, dug
up in the churchyard of Lady St. Mary's, Wareham, in the
eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century it was
kept in Saint Edward's Chapel but was removed from here
to its current location early in the twentienth century.
Photographed with permission of Reverend B. Blakey.

Figure 4: Another monumental slab of Purbeck Marble,
dated 1250-1275, discovered quarter of a mile NNE of St.
Aldhelms Chapel, Worth Matravers, in the 1950s. Church of
St. Nicholas, Worth Matravers.

It soon becomes apparent that ecclesiastical buildings
provided significant business to the local stone trade.
An extract from the Swanage Times dated 1953 dates
the hey-day of the industry to the thirteenth
century, after its decline up until the twelfth, when
Purbeck marble was in great demand according to its
suitability in cathedrals and churches particularly with
the Gothic and Early English
architectural trends. Apparently from 1190 it became the
material of "high fashion" after the Archbishop
Hugh Walter decided to build his "Archbishops
Palace" at Canterbury from it.

Fonts were often made of Purbeck Stone twelve of which
are still used in Dorset. The one in Studland Church is
thought to date back to Saxon times as part of the
original Saxon Church. This simple bowl of Purbeck Stone
is beautifully rounded in shape as seen below. Those
found in the churches of Corfe Castle and Swanage are
slightly more modern examples, the one at Corfe is a
fourteenth-century hexagonal font made of Purbeck Marble
and is said to have been used as a drinking trough for
horses by the roundheads. Other internal features for
which marble was used were altar tables and effigies. The
earliest effigy that survives in Dorset is that of
Philip, a priest who died early in the twelfth century,
which now resides at Tolpuddle. Until its replacement by
alabaster in the fifteenth century, Purbeck was the
supreme material in the production of coffin lids,
effigies and the like. A Table Tomb found at the Church
of St. Nicholas in Studland is a carved piece of Purbeck
Marble.

[Figure 5]

[Figure 6]

Figure 5: Carved Purbeck Marble Table Tomb at
Church of St. Nicholas, Studland, unfortunately no
inscription or date survives. Photographed with
permission of Reverend W. Watts.

Figure 6: Thirteenth century Purbeck Marble effigy of
Sir Henry d'Estoke, Sheriff of Dorset in 1200 during the
reign of King John. Dated around 1240 due to its style.
Lady St. Mary's, Wareham. Photographed with permission of
Reverend B. Blakey.

[Figure 7]

[Figure 8]

Figure 7: Purbeck Stone font,
dates from Norman if not Saxon times, Church of
St. Nicholas, Studland. Photographed with
permission of Reverend W. Watts.

Figure 8:
Hexagonal Purbeck Marble font, dates from the
fourteenth century, Church of Edward King and
Martyr, Corfe Castle. Photographed with
permission of Reverend M. Strike.

Purbeck marble was used to adorn the interior of
many religious houses like those at Lincoln, Chichester,
York, Wells and Winchester. Salisbury Cathedral developed
between 1220 and 1258 in the Early English style using
much Purbeck. At the same time Purbeck Stone was used in
the actual building of the churches. Indeed in the
thirteenth century the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey
was a huge advance for many local marblers who went on to
establish themselves in a London stone trade. Legg
comments that their "jobs in London were a mark of
complete royal acceptance; it gave Purbeck industry a
place inside the closed-shop of building trades".
(Legg, 1989). An extension of this royal acceptance can
be assumed from the fact that the earliest royal effigy
in England, of King John at Worcester, was carved in
Purbeck Marble.

Of course the importance of the marble industry to the
crown was twofold. Yes they appreciated the beauty of the
material and its absolute suitability to the purposes set
out above, but apart from this the stone was crown
property and its profits could only benefit the
monarchy. Some have attributed the increase in use during
the thirteenth century to this factor; the Purbeck
Quarries provided revenue to the royal purse. Furthermore
Henry III was renowned for his eagerness to build. (G.
Dru Drury, 1948).

Though the area has few royal connections today, it
was of great importance in this past period. Corfe Castle
was built as a hunting lodge for the monarch due to its
close proximity to the New Forest and the building of the
original stone structure, built in the later-eleventh
century, naturally made use of the local stone. Accounts
of the Sheriff of Dorset mentioned in Hutchins History
of Dorset describe the various stone products
supplied under each individual monarch. In 1274 under
Edward I, "The sheriff accounts for a marble
altar made in Purbeck and delivered to the friars of
Mount Carmel in London by the gift of King
Henry". (As quoted in Drury, 1948).

Legg quite eloquently charts with one sentence the
story so far recalled; "Marble working in Purbeck
had a forceful Roman beginning, lapsed in the Dark Ages,
and was revived in the frenzy of post-Norman England when
the gloss was laid upon religion by the erection of the
greatest churches ever built." (Legg, 1989).
Although it was used for less extravagant domestic
buildings, having done a particularly good trade in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in roofing and
paving stone, Purbeck Stone clearly achieved a high
status as material fit to commemorate royalty and encase
the worship of God.

Until the Civil War, and the defeat of Lady Bankes and
the fortress of Corfe Castle in 1646 by Oliver
Cromwells men, the industry had been based in the
village of Corfe. West Street, running directly up to the
entrance to the Castle, was the main thoroughfare and
would have been full of masons at work and merchants
haggling their prices for the quarried material. Yet
after the siege of Corfe Castle the industry within this
small village waned. Transport was difficult with the
roads full of the fallen masonry that had come tumbling
down the hillside that the Castle stands upon, it was no
longer a place thriving with trade. This was the point at
which the stone trade of Purbeck made Swanage its new
home. Yet the nature of the industry remained much the
same, with its fluctuating success and committed
service to religion. The beautiful church in Kingston
with the tower that is distinctly noticeable when driving
along the road from Langton Matravers towards the Scott
Arms Public House was built during a slow period in the
1880s. Designed by G. E. Street, built in the Early
English style using a burr stone and Purbeck Marble, the
church cost £60,000 to erect. David Pushman suggests
that this was a ploy of Lord Eldon, resident of the
Encombe Estate that encompassed Kingston, to keep the
stonemasons busy in a time of slump. (Pushman, 1997).
Whatever the reason the modern observer is grateful to
Eldon and Street for providing us with this magnificent
example of Purbeck Stone at its best.

[Figure 9 ]

St. James' Church, Kingston, built in Purbeck
Stone and ornamented with Purbeck Marble, 1880s.

Increasingly from the late-nineteenth century
Purbeck became renowned for its paving stone,
kerbs, channels and setts for guttering;
generally as a hardy building material.
Additionally with the growing interest in
landscaping it offers rockery stone, the
background for a water feature and crazy paving
for a patio. Over the years it could be said that
practicality has become the order of the day.

Quarrying; a precarious occupation

A vital aspect of the stone trade yet to be addressed
is of course the extraction and transportation of the
material from its fixed position in the hillsides and
cliffs of Purbeck to the merchants and customers all over
the country. The shallow Roman earthworks discovered at
Wilkswood and the surrounding area have been mentioned,
yet as the story progresses through history the details
of quarrying become much more dangerous. The men who
hollowed out the inland quarries surrounding Corfe
Castle, Langton Matravers and Swanage, "sunk shafts
some fifty feet down and tunnelled along the seams, some
very narrow, with the light of a long candle".
(Pushman, 1987). Such underground quarries emerged in the
eighteenth century when men would dig down until they hit
the first layer of stone. A system of tunnels developed,
some had extremely low ceilings and were liable to
collapse at any time, killing anyone working below them.
A central mine would extend downwards in the form of
lanes reaching out to the various beds of
stone. Each lane began with a slide, or
"steep shaft" enabling carts attached to ropes
to ferry the stone upwards and out of the mine once dug.
(Legg, 1989). After 1800 ropes were replaced by chains
allowing the mine shafts to get even deeper. Each lane
had a capstan, a wooden drum around which the
chain was wound in order to pull the carts full of stone
from underground. A wooden bar called a spack was
attached to the capstan at one end and a horse at the
other that walked in a circular motion around a towpath,
pulling the spack that provided the leverage to turn the
capstan drum, and therefore the chain and cart full of
stone to the surface. The region named Townsend in
Swanage boasted the "deepest lanes in Purbeck"
apparently the quarries there "have left the most
exhausted ground on the Purbeck Limestone." (Legg,
1989). Normans quarry in Langton has been preserved
and reconstructed by the National Trust as an example of
this type of shaft quarry, pictured below with the
capstan, chain, wooden spack, and shelter for working the
stone in the background.

[Figure 10]

Norman's Quarry, Castle View, Langton
Matravers

During the eighteenth century the extraction
of stone remained firmly based in Swanage,
however the earth here had been truly exhausted
of material and in fear of over-exploitation the
trade returned westwards, this time to Langton
Matravers and the surrounding coastal cliff
quarries that produced the different
Purbeck-Portland Stone mentioned above. Legg
describes the visit in 1878 of the Inspector of
Mines for the West of England to survey the
quarryland of Swanage and Langton. He recorded
"nearly a hundred stone mines in the
Swanage district worked by one, two, or three men
underground." (As quoted in Legg,
1989).

Life after extraction

In the early days when stone was dug at Corfe it was
exported from Ower Quay a transportation point that had
its peak in the Middle Ages as Corfe Castle was being
built and the quay existed right on a busy trade route.
When bringing loads from Worth, Langton and Acton steep
lanes were used so that the journey to Corfe was all
downhill. From Corfe the stone was taken across Rempstone
Heath to Ower. Once here it is assumed that horses,
stabled nearby, dragged their loads along the quay to
barges waiting to ferry the stone to the bigger ships
anchored further out.

In the same way, after the move to Swanage, the loads
were carted down the narrow streets of the town to join
the piles of stone known as bankers on the shore.
Once loaded carts drawn by horses transported the stone
down to the sea where again barges took it out to
awaiting ships. These barges, often carrying between six
and nine tons in weight, were rowed by two men with oars.

Though the uses of stone are today not too dissimilar
from those of the past the actual quarrying of the stone
is far from the dangerous underground workings and pick
and shovel days of old. Although the quarrymen of our era
do use tools to dress stone, in the main heavy machinery
cuts in to the quarry face. Lorries have now replaced the
horse and cart, barges and ships, that used to underpin
the transportation process. The face of quarrying is
somewhat altered yet its origins are not forgotten.

[Figure 11]

[Figure 12]

Figures 11 & 12:

Man and machine at work: quarrymen dressing
stone and an excavator grading blocks of stone at
Swanage Quarries, October 2001

Thanks to Ian West at the School of Ocean and Earth
Science, Southampton University for use of the geological
information and superb location maps on his website.
Appreciation also to the Reverend Strike (Edward King and
Martyr, Corfe Castle), Reverend Watts (St. Nicholas,
Studland), and Reverend Blakey (Lady St. Mary's,
Wareham), who gave me permission to take photographs of
some of the ancient Purbeck Stone and Marble features in
their Churches. Last but not least, thanks go to my
father, Chris Suttle, who gave me the opportunity to
research this fascinating element of local history.